Wholesalers: are composite panels a fire risk in your buildings?

Fire safety is high on the national agenda following the disaster at Grenfell Tower.

That concern should not be confined to the owners of high-rise tower blocks, however.

For many in the commercial sector, such as wholesalers, fire safety is of paramount importance. That’s not just because much of the value of wholesalers’ businesses is tied up in stock at their sites.

Wholesalers need to know that if a fire breaks out, staff and customers will have the time to evacuate safely.

Some types of building materials are also far more of a risk to firefighters than others.

What are the potential fire risks for wholesalers?

It’s vital that wholesalers and their insurers know the materials used in their buildings.

Many wholesalers have composite panels within their sites or used as external cladding. They are lightweight, weather-resistant, generally made of two metal sheets bonded to a core filled with insulation.

This insulation can be:

· polystyrene

· mineral fibre

· polyurethane

· phenolic foam

· polyisocyanurate

The materials used can often depend on the age of the building.

Some panels are considered far more of a risk than others – potentially spreading fire within the panels and out of sight of firefighters.

Polystyrene insulation, which was common 20 years ago, can cause a blaze to intensify because it melts and leaves voids which bring oxygen into a fire. Its molten drops can also spread the fire, and the loss of all the insulation material can quickly affect the structural stability of a building.

Although polyurethane does not melt into droplets in the same way, it gives off choking black smoke and toxic fumes which can be deadly.

Polyisocyanurate, however, can withstand fire longer, it’s harder to ignite phenolic foam and it gives off less smoke, and rockwool mineral fibre is non-combustible.

In the 1990s, there was considerable concern about the then widespread use of polystyrene-cored panels for internal partitioning and ceilings, even in cold storage areas. This concern followed more than 30 fires involving them and including major blazes such as a poultry factory fire in Herefordshire in 1993 in which two firefighters died.

What do UK building regulations say?

When it comes to the exterior of buildings, the regulations say external walls must resist the spread of a fire over them. They must also resist spreading a fire to another building.

The exterior must resist an internal fire, and if it is within a metre of the site boundary it must also resist an external fire.

There are also detailed regulations for where composite panels can be used inside a building.

What does your insurance broker need to know?

The importance of understanding your buildings cannot be overstated for you and your broker.

Fire safety regulations state that every wholesaler must have a responsible person who makes regular fire assessments of their building and ensures there is a duty of care to staff and customers.

To make a good assessment of the fire risks and get you the best insurance, your broker will need to know the insulation used in any composite panels, their height and position of your building, and any potential sources of fire risk inside and outside it.

Would you like some more information?

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